If you have accomplished ALL of the
following, then you should NOT come to the next Memphis .NET user Group
meeting, next Tuesday, October 21, 2003:

You
know why XML is important and how it can help make data transfer and
manipulation more efficient and elegant

You
understand SQL Server Web integration

You’ve
set up IIS Virtual Directory Management for SQL Server

You
can run SQL Server sprocs and queries from IE

You
know all the ways to get XML into and out of SQL Server

You
know how to transform XML into HTML, CSV, other XML formats, and for other
devices

You
know the tools in .NET to consume XML fastest

For everyone else, come to the Memphis .NET User Group
meeting on Tuesday night at 6:00 pm
at 3175 Lenox Park Boulevard,
Suite 201. Jerry
Dixon, Quilogy Senior
Consultant, will present a demo-packed exhibition of XML. This
presentation will be useful for developers, DBAs, and systems people alike.

Bring a friend, enjoy refreshments,
and participate in the drawing for books and a copy of Visual Studio .NET.

Simulating Server Includes with ASP.NETPaul Sheriff, fellow RD and noted .NET speaker and author,
has an article on MSDN, titled “Simulating
Include Files with an ASP.NET Server Control”. Abstract: Learn to create a server control to include common
HTML across multiple pages. Since ASP.NET 1.1 has no built-in means of
maintaining a common look and feel across multiple Web sites, simulating
#include files enables you to modify HTML for multiple sites in one location.

Equality PerformanceGrant Killian explains
why he thinks Equals() is better than “=” in VB.NET. He does a
nice job explaining why and shows how he came to the conclusion.

.NET BootStrapperDuncan Mackenzie talks about a
VS.NET plug-in created by the VS team. It changes your VS made Setup projects
to include the Framework bootstrapper with the Windows Installer bootstrapper. So
upon deployment, the install will check for the existence of the Framework. Get
the latest from a
gotdotnet workspace.

- Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System is now pre-installed, along with links to walkthroughs and the Salesforce.com demo

- Users now have the option of evaluating products from 8 of our VSIP partners within the Hosted Experience. The current partners are Infragistics, InstallShield, Wilde, Crystal Reports, Deklarit, Preemptive, ARTech, and Sanctum. Even more partners will be added in the coming months.

- “101 Samples” was added in both VB and C#- A few bug fixes and enhancements were made to the overall user experience

We have several enhancements planned for future versions of the Hosted Experience as this continues to grow and become the preferred way for customers to evaluate Visual Studio. The Hosted Experience helps users start evaluating Visual Studio in under 5 minutes, for free, and without having to install and configure the software. Users have access to the Hosted Experience for up to 3 hours at a time, but they can always come back and request a new block of time.

In an earlier post, I discussed my first opportunity to see PHP. Now, Kent Sharkey mentions that the ASP.NET Developer Center has a new section for PHP developers. Kent also says that there is a whitepaper that compares PHP to ASP.NET, plus other resources that the PHP developer should look over “like how to get started with ASP.NET for the princely, non-MSFT price of USD$0”. Spoken in true Kent Sharkey style!

I first saw this on Rory’s blog and had to check into it. Rory points to a news item on Slashdot which has the following entry:

"An systematic study conducted by NEC-Mitsubishi, ATI Technologies and the University of Utah has concluded that the use of multiple monitors in the workplace increases productivity. The study is discussed on Tom's Hardware, EE Times, and there's a detailed press release on NEC-Mitsubishi. For those of us who use multi-monitors, this is not shocking. But maybe now that it's official, IT managers will view it as a good investment and not just for gamers."

Take a look at the EE Times article “Multiple Monitor Computing Demonstrates Tangible Benefits”."The study reveals multi-screen users get on task quicker, work faster and get more work done with fewer errors editing documents, spreadsheets, and graphic files in comparison with single screen users," said Dr. James Anderson, professor at the University of Utah's Department of Communication. "The technology required to support multi-monitor computing is not only affordable, it has become standard within operating systems and LCD displays. Multiple monitor configurations are poised to become the new standard in the workplace."

These articles all showed and discussed productivity while using flat-screen panels. It makes sense that NEC and ATI would. With a setup like the picture below, couldn’t you be more productive? At the client site that I’m currently working, the customer provided a monitor for my usage. So, combined with my DELL notebook which has multi-monitor support, I’m doing multi-monitor development. I can run my mail client or Query Analyzer on one screen and VS.NET on the other doing debugging. So, there is a benefit without dual flat displays. But don’t they look good? So, forward the article to your management and get more work done while your surfing.

After reading the article, I had some other strange curiousities:If there is a productivity increase with two monitors, what would happen with 3? What if I had an entire wall that was a single monitor?How would this work with headset displays?How will the Tablet PC be involved in this? Maybe they can put screens on both sides?

I’ve
heard several people mention and/or complain since the news started slipping
about Longhorn not arriving in 2005. Even Mary Jo Foley has talked about it.
But she asked
a good question: “Why does it matter?”
Mary Jo: I’m with you.

I have
great O/S’s in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, a great runtime
platform in .NET that allows me to build all sorts of application types, great
tools with VS.NET, and a variety of other Microsoft server products that will
address any need of every business that I know (SQL, SharePoint, BizTalk, their
upcoming new releases, etc). I can wait for an O/S that will raise the platform
bar again.

Bill
Evjen, Executive Director of INETA and
Technical Director in Reuters R&D,
has started a blog. Bill is the
RD in St. Louis, and author of several top .NET
books. He also founded the St. Louis
.NET Users Group.

Juval
Lowy, one of the Software Legends
and a noted author and speaker on .NET topics, has started a blog. Juval co-presented with me
at TechEd and is also one of the Silicone
Valley RD’s. Juval is also
active in the Bay.NET User Group.

These are
two very intelligent people who are “in the know” when it comes to
Microsoft and .NET. If you have a chance to hear them talk or read any of their
writing, I would encourage you not to miss.

Carl Franklin, fellow RD and host of the infamous .NET Rocks show, has now
started blogging. If you don’t
know about Carl or the show, you have to check it out. Carl not only puts on
an entertaining show, he allows listeners to download the recorded interviews
for later listening. Good stuff…

Recently,
Carl started Club .NET
Rocks!. “For about the cost of a pack of cigarettes a week”, you’ll receive a weekly CD of the
show plus other benefits.

Due to the most read blog within Microsoft mentioning my blog (thank you Mr. Scoble), I was looking at my referer rankings on Radio. When I noticed that someone had found my page by googling for Quilogy, my employer. I clicked on the Google link to see the result, and I was certainly amused. How many ways can someone spell Quilogy? In an effort to assist those who might spell Quilogy in different ways, I counted 10 spellings of Quilogy. Is this some inverse Soundex algorithm?